Somewhere in 2001, I bought a computer magazine which came with a Linux CD. I had heard of Linux before, but while we did have broadband back then and was technically capable of downloading a Linux distribution, this method was far easier. This was my first foray into Linux - it was Mandrake. Now, though, it seems the curtain has really dropped for the French Linux company.

Mandriva is more like a movie I saw a couple of Halloweens ago. A girl is killed in a watery car accident, but doesn't know it. She spends the rest of the hour and a half moving to California and trying to figure it all out, before her dead friends come for her to help guide her into the murky depths of the local river, where she belongs. It was all very touching.

And you don't even realize that all distros benefit from the work done at Mandriva.